Mathu Ram vs Municipal Corporation

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J.—CMP No. 12982 of 2013 and CMP No. 11758 of 2014 Heard. Allowed. With the consent of the parties, the petition is taken up for final hearing.

The petitioner has claimed regularisation of his services on completion of 8 years of service on daily waged basis in terms of the decision of Hon''ble Division Bench in CWP No. 2735 of 2010 decided on 28th July, 2010 titled Rakesh Kumar vs. State of H.P. and others.

The respondents have opposed the claim of the petitioner by filing reply wherein it has been contended that the services of the petitioner have been regularized vide order dated 18.4.2007 in pursuance to the regularisation policy framed by the State Government, issued from time to time, and in this case it is in terms of the policy issued vide letter dated 18.4.2007 which provided for completion of 8 years of service upto 31.3.2004.

The stand of the respondents is not in consonance with the judgment passed by this Court in CWP No. 2735 of 2010 wherein this Court has categorically held :

The only reference to be made for analyzing the grievance of the petitioners is two orders of the Government. One order is dated 3.4.2000 and other is dated 6.5.2000. Order dated 3.4.2000, reads as follows:

In partial modification of this Department letter of even number dated 8th July, 1999 on the above subject, I am directed to say that the Government has now decided that the Daily Waged/Contingent Paid workers in all the Departments including Public Works and Irrigation and Public Health Departments (other than work-charged categories)/Boards/Corporations/Universities, etc. who have completed 8 years of continuous service (with a minimum of 240 days in a calendar year) as on 31-03-2000 will be eligible for regularization. It has further been decided that completion of required years of service makes such daily wager/contingent paid worker eligible for consideration to be regularized and regularization in all cases will be from prospective effect i.e. from the date the order of regularization is issued after completion of codal formalities.

In view of the above decision and in order to avoid any litigation and also any hardship to daily wagers departments shall do the regularization based on seniority and they will ensure that senior persons are regularized first rather than regularizing junior persons first.

Other terms and conditions like fulfillment of essential qualification as prescribed in R & P Rules, etc. etc. as laid down in this department letter of 8th July, 1999, as referred to above, shall continue to be operative.

These instructions may kindly be brought to the notice of all concerned for strict compliance.

These instructions have been issued with the prior approval of the Finance Department obtained vide their Dy. No. 852 dated 23-03-2000.

Order dated 6.5.2000, to the extent relevant, reads as follows:

During the process of regularization of daily wagers, various issues and problems relating to these workers concerning their regularization have been brought to the notice of the Government. The Government in order to avoid such confusion or problems has decided to streamline the existing procedure/instructions in order to bring uniformity of procedure in various Departments of the Government. It has, therefore, been decided that henceforth:

(i) Daily Waged/Contingent Paid Workers who have completed required years of continuous service (with a minimum of 240 days in a calendar year except where specified other wise for the tribal areas) which as per latest instructions issued vide this Department letter of even number dated 3-4-2000 is 8 years as on 31-03-2000 shall be eligible for regularization. However, in Departments/Corporations/Boards, where the system of the work charge categories also exists, eligible daily wagers will be considered first for bringing them on the work charge category instead of regularization. Such eligible daily waged workers/contingent paid workers will be considered for regularization against vacant posts or by creation of fresh posts and in both these events prior approval of Finance Department will be required as per their letter No. Fin-1-C(7)-1/99 dated 24-12-1999. The terms and conditions for such regularization shall be governed as per Annexure-''A''.

4.This scheme was in force till a new scheme introduced on 9th June, 2006. The contention of the petitioners is that on completion of 8 years service, as per the scheme extracted above, they are liable to be granted the work-charged status being on a work charged establishment.

It cannot be disputed that the policy of regularisation has been extended from time to time. The mere fact that there was a time gap in issuance of the policy of regularisation which prescribed different cut off dates cannot be a ground to deny the benefit of regularisation to the petitioner on his completion of 8 years of service on daily waged basis in terms of Rakesh Kumar (supra).

Accordingly, the petition is allowed and the respondents are directed to comply with the directions as issued in Rakesh Kumar''s case (supra), however, subject to the final outcome of the SLP titled State vs. Rakesh Kumar, which is pending adjudication before the Hon''ble Apex Court.